As me and my family watched the opening of the Olympics (which was FUCKIN' AMAZING - with or without fireworks) and our jaws were firmly on the floor the whole time a friend of mine turned to me and said: "Well... I guess we should feel sorry for whoever is next in line for 2012 Summer Olympics. Like... how do you top THAT off? Have the opening ceremony filmed on the Moon? Or at the bottom of the ocean?"
Fireworks or no fireworks - the opening show was amazing. All that wirework with people flying through the air, and all those performers working in unison... And then the ground opens and the globe comes out. With people on it. Running around the globe.
But like I said... How do you top that off if you are say... London? Bugger me... I guess it is MUCH simpler to have newspaper headlines shout "Fireworks were fake, man! It ain't real!" ("Olympic Fireworks Faked For TV", "Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked") and then at the end of the text have that short paragraph saying it did really happen, but we were shown CGI for security reasons. ("Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead.")
I'll believe it when they can A) stop rain on demand, or B) start rain on demand.
A) They did stop rain on demand. B) There is quite a difference between dispersing clouds that are already there and creating clouds out of nothing. And any system that be able to effectively deliver water on demand would probably be far more expensive than digging a ditch and letting water flow through it. Unless you are thinking of something like this at 5:00. That might work... with some changes to the laws of physics.
When you can buy... Chinese will buy the resources they need from Russians, paying them with money they earned by selling led-painted toys to Americans. Simple... Russians get the money for oil, China gets oil for money, and USA gets their G.I. JOE toys with Kung Fu grip. Everyone is happy.
They could even re-edit the first Astronaut Farmer movie to match its Billy Bob Thornton with the Armageddon one. Make it so that Bruce Willis' character is actually Armageddon Bruce's twin brother.
Only to make it bigger... have those two halfs of the asteroid from the Armageddon break into two halfs each, and back on their course to Earth. FOUR MOTHERFUCKIN ASTEROIDS!!! Call it "The Astronaut Farmer 2 - Four Riders of the Apocalypse". Have Ben (Affleck), Billy Bob and 2nd Bruce (get it - Plan B) stopping one 'steroid each - with one left over to obliterate France. Again.
I'm not sayin' that it would get anywhere close to topping off The Dark Knight... But it could probably take out Finding Nemo.
If they, when they turn it on, create anything that can at least significantly damage The WorldTM - unless you have a personal space faring escape pod LHC is going to get you.
Look at your slashdot ID. 157947 can be written as 1 - 57 - 9 - 47. Its all downhill from there. 47 is easy if you are a Star Trek or a Hitman fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_(number) 9+1 are 10. Which is how much you need to add (as you are going downhill, or backwards) to 47 to get the SECOND PAIR of numbers.
Or you can start at 15, the first 2 digits, divide it in half like they are integers and get the 7, add 2 and get 9, add the 2's you used so far to get 4, and either subtract that 2 you added to the 9 earlier to get the final 7 or just remember that 1337 starts with 1 and ends with 7.
Yeah... I know... I've been confusing people with my number mnemonics for years.
I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it.
What kind of autonomous pathogen detection systems do we have today? I am not talking about strip tests. I am thinking more in a way of pattern recognition system plugged into a digital microscope, combined with a database of say.. known bacteria.
Sounds to me that building something like that should be a logical practical application from the moment we managed to strap a digital camera to a microscope. With an "on a chip" microscope for 10$, I wonder... Shouldn't someone be working on something like that? And what is the current state of the "lab on a chip"?
I mean... I AM eagerly awaiting that holodeck as much as the next guy or girl, but medical tricorders MIGHT be a tad more important.
1. Batman is not an elected official. Batman is just another criminal in the eyes of the law. His personal morality has nothing to do with the fact that he is doing illegal things.
2. Wiretapping ending after the "war on idea" ends?
3. Batman is a criminal in the eyes of the law. Batman is fighting crime and evil on the streets of Gotham. Batman only attacks criminals. You try being logical about positive reasons for sending Batman to jail, letting criminals loose on the streets and very likely creating a world wide depression by letting stocks of Wayne Enterprises fall once Bruce Wayne ends up in jail.
4. Apparently, you and I have not seen the same movie. It was Dent's trap in which Dent used Batman.
5. Again... Which movie did you see? Are we even sure that Dent is dead? All we know is that his reputation is dead as Gordon puts it. And it is not like he fell from the top of Gotham Cathedral like Joker in Batman (1989). Batman sure got up and ran (not walked) away after that fall.
Could Marcel Proust defeat the entire first team of JLA? I didn't think so.
And while you are so smart - why not pick up a language or two. So YOU could read YOUR favorite fiction it in its original form. French OR Klingon, whichever it may be. I'm afraid that won't help to folks dying in Africa but then again - neither will a "decent translation" of literary masturbations of a 19th century French homosexual.
Oh and... "In Search of Lost Time" sucks. Oh shit! I forgot... Only YOU Mr. Anonymous Coward are entitled to personal tastes.
Troy University, in Alabama, has been testing a gadget that features a mirrored sphere suspended above a small pedestal. Called Securexam Remote Proctor, it's about the size of a large paperweight and plugs into a standard port on a home computer. The pedestal includes a groove for scanning fingerprints, a tiny microphone, and a camera. The sphere reflects a 360-degree view around the test taker, which the camera picks up.
Students are recorded during exams, and anything suspicious -- such as someone else's presence or voice in the room -- is flagged. . The system is not cheap. Students pay $150 for the device. Further, it works only with the Windows operating system and an Internet Explorer browser, creating a problem for students who have Macs, for instance.
Another point that this one misses is use of hidden microphones and earphones with a helper in another room. Also... bandwidth... Forget users on dialup. What about couple of thousands of students connecting at the same time to the universities server and spamming it with hour long videos with resolution high enough to spot cheat sheets around the student.
World Campus, the online arm of the Pennsylvania State University system, is testing another system called Webassessor. It uses proctors, Web cameras, and software that recognizes students' typing styles, such as their speed and whether they pause between certain letters. Students purchase the cameras for $50 to $80 apiece. They allow proctors to view a student's face, keyboard, and workspace.
The Phoenix-based provider of the system, Kryterion Inc., employs proctors who remotely observe and listen to as many as 50 students at a time. If the keystroke pattern of a student who is taking an exam does not match the one he or she provided at registration, or if the image of a student taking an exam does not match a digital photograph that the student provided at enrollment, then the student cannot start the exam. A proctor can also stop a student who is acting suspiciously from completing an exam. Students must have a broadband connection to use the service.
Kryterion charges institutions $20,000 to customize the software and for training. It also charges colleges each time students sit for an exam.
Again... hidden micks and earphones. Bandwidth partially solved by limiting it to 50 students at a time but it creates a bottleneck which university will be looking to avoid since it has to pay the company each time a student takes a test. And the keystroke patterning is just ridiculous. You hurt your finger or get lost in thoughts and you are flagged as a cheater? Also... don't change your hairstyle or hair color.
Acxiom Corporation. The company's system relies on test takers' answering detailed, personal "challenge" questions. Acxiom, based in Little Rock, Ark., gathers information from a variety of databases, including criminal files and property records. The company uses the data to ask students questions, such as streets they lived on, house numbers, and previous employers. If students answer the questions correctly, they proceed to the exams.
National American University Online is testing the system on its students, and the Colorado community-college consortium is also considering using it.
Jeffrey L. Bailie, dean of online instruction for National, says he anticipates that the system will be used on students when they take final exams or other high-stakes assessments. "We want to take just one added step to make sure that the person on the other end is who they're reporting to be," he says.
He declines to reveal how much the system costs. But Michael A. Jortberg, who is leading Acxiom's higher-education efforts, says it costs roughly $10 a student.
This one is just... WTF? You answer personal questions (which are created with no regard for your privacy) and then let someone else do the test. Umm.. aah... how is that more secure than a 4 character password?
They won't. Students with dialup will either have to upgrade the connection or come to the college to do the exam if better connection is unavailable in their area.
That is one of the reasons my college is still against implementing some kind of a video link during a test. It is not connection heavy just on the student - imagine maintaining couple of thousands of simultaneous video links with resolution high enough to spot possible cheat sheets? Like... 4pt text printed cheat sheets stickers on your monitor.
There is a MUCH simpler solution that they implement.
Online tests that can be done from home constitute only a part of the grade. For those to be valid - you have to pass the final exam AT the college. Many exams require you to write a seminary work and later "defend it" in person in front of the professor.
Here - students are the ones demanding something like that since some of us (like me) have to travel for 6 hours to get to an exam. Which can be quite ironic when some of your tests take around 20-30 minutes. Get up at 3 to catch a 5 AM bus, 6 hours one way, do a test, wait for the next bus home, 6 hours back. Roads here suck. No highway. We might get one in about 10 years or so...
There is also a simple solution to that problem too. Since most of the tests are done by logging into the college's system with your ID and password - it could be also done over the internet. Like I said... we do it for the "lesser" tests. Only reason we are not allowed to do that for the final tests is cheating. Now... my town has a university as well... A good one... only not with such a study program. Why my college can't or won't contact the faculty of the university here and arrange for us to take the exam from the facilities of the university here (despite students suggesting and demanding that for years now), under the supervision of the local staff - well... I'd rather think its the old incompetence again instead of malice and money.
Slashdot Mirror
As me and my family watched the opening of the Olympics (which was FUCKIN' AMAZING - with or without fireworks) and our jaws were firmly on the floor the whole time a friend of mine turned to me and said:
"Well... I guess we should feel sorry for whoever is next in line for 2012 Summer Olympics.
Like... how do you top THAT off?
Have the opening ceremony filmed on the Moon?
Or at the bottom of the ocean?"
Fireworks or no fireworks - the opening show was amazing.
All that wirework with people flying through the air, and all those performers working in unison...
And then the ground opens and the globe comes out.
With people on it.
Running around the globe.
But like I said... How do you top that off if you are say... London? Bugger me...
I guess it is MUCH simpler to have newspaper headlines shout "Fireworks were fake, man! It ain't real!" ("Olympic Fireworks Faked For TV", "Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked") and then at the end of the text have that short paragraph saying it did really happen, but we were shown CGI for security reasons.
("Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead.")
Not very sporting from the Brits, no sir.
I'll believe it when they can A) stop rain on demand, or B) start rain on demand.
A) They did stop rain on demand.
B) There is quite a difference between dispersing clouds that are already there and creating clouds out of nothing.
And any system that be able to effectively deliver water on demand would probably be far more expensive than digging a ditch and letting water flow through it.
Unless you are thinking of something like this at 5:00.
That might work... with some changes to the laws of physics.
...will grow larger.
From my experience so far that sounds EXACTLY like a Mac user.
A - he is obviously not poor.
B - he is a fuckin' idiot (unless the whole thing is staged).
Being sorry for rich idiots is just not my cup of tea really...
Why fight?
When you can buy...
Chinese will buy the resources they need from Russians, paying them with money they earned by selling led-painted toys to Americans.
Simple... Russians get the money for oil, China gets oil for money, and USA gets their G.I. JOE toys with Kung Fu grip.
Everyone is happy.
Really... why fight?
Sounds like a part of an "Onion" article.
You got a cryogenic chamber in your mother's basement?
I hope it also has some kind of a autonomous and renewable power source cause you will be out for a LONG time.
It aims to carve a niche among the third world's richer poor children.
Or at least the ones with better taste. More like chicken, less like monkeys.
Oh and... 12$ is probably a typo. To be LIKE Apple II it should be something like US $1298.
Actually, "The Astronaut Farmer" would be more suited for sequel here.
They could even re-edit the first Astronaut Farmer movie to match its Billy Bob Thornton with the Armageddon one.
Make it so that Bruce Willis' character is actually Armageddon Bruce's twin brother.
Only to make it bigger... have those two halfs of the asteroid from the Armageddon break into two halfs each, and back on their course to Earth.
FOUR MOTHERFUCKIN ASTEROIDS!!!
Call it "The Astronaut Farmer 2 - Four Riders of the Apocalypse".
Have Ben (Affleck), Billy Bob and 2nd Bruce (get it - Plan B) stopping one 'steroid each - with one left over to obliterate France. Again.
I'm not sayin' that it would get anywhere close to topping off The Dark Knight...
But it could probably take out Finding Nemo.
Why? Where?
If they, when they turn it on, create anything that can at least significantly damage The WorldTM - unless you have a personal space faring escape pod LHC is going to get you.
divide it in half like they are integers
integer 7 plus integer 7 is 14, but since you can't have half an integer (that is what floats are for), int 15 divided by 2 is 7.
http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/CD/engapps/ctutor/assignment.html
They need to spawn more infantry in Iraq.
Just put a shiny button with a "Don't press this button" sign on it.
Look at your slashdot ID. 157947 can be written as 1 - 57 - 9 - 47. Its all downhill from there.
47 is easy if you are a Star Trek or a Hitman fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_(number)
9+1 are 10. Which is how much you need to add (as you are going downhill, or backwards) to 47 to get the SECOND PAIR of numbers.
Or you can start at 15, the first 2 digits, divide it in half like they are integers and get the 7, add 2 and get 9, add the 2's you used so far to get 4, and either subtract that 2 you added to the 9 earlier to get the final 7 or just remember that 1337 starts with 1 and ends with 7.
Yeah... I know... I've been confusing people with my number mnemonics for years.
I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it.
Or, why don't you try spelling it?
Or use some other mnemonic
About the autonomous part...
What kind of autonomous pathogen detection systems do we have today?
I am not talking about strip tests.
I am thinking more in a way of pattern recognition system plugged into a digital microscope, combined with a database of say.. known bacteria.
Sounds to me that building something like that should be a logical practical application from the moment we managed to strap a digital camera to a microscope.
With an "on a chip" microscope for 10$, I wonder... Shouldn't someone be working on something like that?
And what is the current state of the "lab on a chip"?
I mean... I AM eagerly awaiting that holodeck as much as the next guy or girl, but medical tricorders MIGHT be a tad more important.
From what I've read, Jobs has a pretty decent plan in place to arrange the right successor when that time comes.
But isn't cloning illegal?
Does it detect ghosts?
Razzle-Dazzle.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=167
They called him Mr. Glass.
1. Batman is not an elected official. Batman is just another criminal in the eyes of the law. His personal morality has nothing to do with the fact that he is doing illegal things.
2. Wiretapping ending after the "war on idea" ends?
3. Batman is a criminal in the eyes of the law. Batman is fighting crime and evil on the streets of Gotham. Batman only attacks criminals.
You try being logical about positive reasons for sending Batman to jail, letting criminals loose on the streets and very likely creating a world wide depression by letting stocks of Wayne Enterprises fall once Bruce Wayne ends up in jail.
4. Apparently, you and I have not seen the same movie. It was Dent's trap in which Dent used Batman.
5. Again... Which movie did you see?
Are we even sure that Dent is dead? All we know is that his reputation is dead as Gordon puts it.
And it is not like he fell from the top of Gotham Cathedral like Joker in Batman (1989). Batman sure got up and ran (not walked) away after that fall.
Could Marcel Proust defeat the entire first team of JLA?
I didn't think so.
And while you are so smart - why not pick up a language or two.
So YOU could read YOUR favorite fiction it in its original form. French OR Klingon, whichever it may be.
I'm afraid that won't help to folks dying in Africa but then again - neither will a "decent translation" of literary masturbations of a 19th century French homosexual.
Oh and... "In Search of Lost Time" sucks.
Oh shit! I forgot...
Only YOU Mr. Anonymous Coward are entitled to personal tastes.
Troy University, in Alabama, has been testing a gadget that features a mirrored sphere suspended above a small pedestal. Called Securexam Remote Proctor, it's about the size of a large paperweight and plugs into a standard port on a home computer. The pedestal includes a groove for scanning fingerprints, a tiny microphone, and a camera. The sphere reflects a 360-degree view around the test taker, which the camera picks up.
Students are recorded during exams, and anything suspicious -- such as someone else's presence or voice in the room -- is flagged.
.
The system is not cheap. Students pay $150 for the device. Further, it works only with the Windows operating system and an Internet Explorer browser, creating a problem for students who have Macs, for instance.
Another point that this one misses is use of hidden microphones and earphones with a helper in another room.
Also... bandwidth...
Forget users on dialup.
What about couple of thousands of students connecting at the same time to the universities server and spamming it with hour long videos with resolution high enough to spot cheat sheets around the student.
World Campus, the online arm of the Pennsylvania State University system, is testing another system called Webassessor. It uses proctors, Web cameras, and software that recognizes students' typing styles, such as their speed and whether they pause between certain letters. Students purchase the cameras for $50 to $80 apiece. They allow proctors to view a student's face, keyboard, and workspace.
The Phoenix-based provider of the system, Kryterion Inc., employs proctors who remotely observe and listen to as many as 50 students at a time. If the keystroke pattern of a student who is taking an exam does not match the one he or she provided at registration, or if the image of a student taking an exam does not match a digital photograph that the student provided at enrollment, then the student cannot start the exam. A proctor can also stop a student who is acting suspiciously from completing an exam. Students must have a broadband connection to use the service.
Kryterion charges institutions $20,000 to customize the software and for training. It also charges colleges each time students sit for an exam.
Again... hidden micks and earphones.
Bandwidth partially solved by limiting it to 50 students at a time but it creates a bottleneck which university will be looking to avoid since it has to pay the company each time a student takes a test.
And the keystroke patterning is just ridiculous. You hurt your finger or get lost in thoughts and you are flagged as a cheater?
Also... don't change your hairstyle or hair color.
Acxiom Corporation. The company's system relies on test takers' answering detailed, personal "challenge" questions. Acxiom, based in Little Rock, Ark., gathers information from a variety of databases, including criminal files and property records. The company uses the data to ask students questions, such as streets they lived on, house numbers, and previous employers. If students answer the questions correctly, they proceed to the exams.
National American University Online is testing the system on its students, and the Colorado community-college consortium is also considering using it.
Jeffrey L. Bailie, dean of online instruction for National, says he anticipates that the system will be used on students when they take final exams or other high-stakes assessments. "We want to take just one added step to make sure that the person on the other end is who they're reporting to be," he says.
He declines to reveal how much the system costs. But Michael A. Jortberg, who is leading Acxiom's higher-education efforts, says it costs roughly $10 a student.
This one is just... WTF?
You answer personal questions (which are created with no regard for your privacy) and then let someone else do the test.
Umm.. aah... how is that more secure than a 4 character password?
They won't.
Students with dialup will either have to upgrade the connection or come to the college to do the exam if better connection is unavailable in their area.
That is one of the reasons my college is still against implementing some kind of a video link during a test.
It is not connection heavy just on the student - imagine maintaining couple of thousands of simultaneous video links with resolution high enough to spot possible cheat sheets?
Like... 4pt text printed cheat sheets stickers on your monitor.
There is a MUCH simpler solution that they implement.
Online tests that can be done from home constitute only a part of the grade. For those to be valid - you have to pass the final exam AT the college.
Many exams require you to write a seminary work and later "defend it" in person in front of the professor.
Here - students are the ones demanding something like that since some of us (like me) have to travel for 6 hours to get to an exam.
Which can be quite ironic when some of your tests take around 20-30 minutes.
Get up at 3 to catch a 5 AM bus, 6 hours one way, do a test, wait for the next bus home, 6 hours back.
Roads here suck. No highway. We might get one in about 10 years or so...
There is also a simple solution to that problem too.
Since most of the tests are done by logging into the college's system with your ID and password - it could be also done over the internet.
Like I said... we do it for the "lesser" tests. Only reason we are not allowed to do that for the final tests is cheating.
Now... my town has a university as well... A good one... only not with such a study program.
Why my college can't or won't contact the faculty of the university here and arrange for us to take the exam from the facilities of the university here (despite students suggesting and demanding that for years now), under the supervision of the local staff - well... I'd rather think its the old incompetence again instead of malice and money.
The one-armed man did it!